The runic inscription on the spearhead from Mos

Abstract The inscription sioag or gaois on the spearhead from Mos is usually understood as Gothic *Gaujis ‘the barker’. There are linguistic difficulties with that interpretation. One can also doubt whether ‘the barker’ really is a suitable name for a weapon. The author suggests that sioag / gaois is an anagram of agiso , corresponding to Old High German agiso ‘fear, terror’. The Gothic counterpart would be *agisa . Thus, there is reason to consider if the language of the inscription is Burgundian, Herulic or West Germanic. There are very few examples of anagrams in older runic inscriptions: lau , lua and aul for alu and Rahswia for haswiaR ‘the grey-haired’. The reason for obscuring *Agisō ‘the terrifying one’ through an anagram could be magical.